The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) has set a new record for exhibition visitation with the 100,000th visitor passing through the doors of the Australian exclusive exhibition, Pixar: 20 Years of Animation, on the weekend.
Presented as part of Melbourne Winter Masterpieces (MWM), Pixar: 20 Years of Animation explores the art and artistry behind the on-screen magic of the world’s most successful animation studio.
ACMI Director Tony Sweeney said not only has the exhibition set a new record for paid exhibition entry, it has broadened the reach and appeal of the successful MWM series and attracted new audiences.
‘We’re very proud that ACMI has so successfully become the second of Melbourne’s major cultural institutions to join the MWM series and with outstanding results in year one,’ Tony said. ‘We couldn’t be happier with how Melbourne and Victoria has embraced this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go behind the scenes of Pixar and its much-loved worlds and characters.’
The exhibition opened on June 28 with a target audience of 100,000, a figure it has surpassed with 5 weeks to go before closing on October 14.
Elyse Klaidman, Dean of Art and Film and Pixar University, said ACMI had set new standards for presentation of the exhibition internationally.
‘We have had a wonderful experience working with the extraordinary team at ACMI in what was a true collaboration that has resulted in the exhibition looking better than it ever has,’ Elyse said. ‘It is fantastic that the show continues to do so well both critically and with the numbers of visitors’.
Mr Sweeney said as Melbourne’s newest major arts facility and one of the leading moving image centres in the world, ACMI is committed to engaging new audiences in screen culture in continually growing numbers.
‘Melbourne is a truly international arts city and the fact that ACMI has achieved record breaking attendances alongside the NGV in MWM 2007 is testimony to the capacity of Victorians to enthusiastically embrace a diversity of cultural experiences,’ Tony said.
The previous highest attendance for a paid exhibition at ACMI was 52,000 for Eyes, Lies and Illusions in 2006-07, while the highest free entry exhibition was TV50 in 2006. As at close of business Sunday 9 September, 100,197 people had visited Pixar: 20 Years of Animation.
Pixar: 20 Years of Animation (Thursday 28 June – Sunday 14 October)
Exhibition open daily; Tickets > Full $15, Concession $10 Family (2 adults and 2 concessions) $44
Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Flinders Street, Melbourne; http://www.acmi.net.au/
[release from the ACMI]